Unraveled
by MistyForestQueen
Summary: There is a time when you need to come to terms with everything that has happened in your life. It's almost like a fight or flight response, You either accept what has happened and you move on, or you can let it eat away at you until there is nothing but the rotting flesh of which you once were. I decided a long ago that I needed to move on, but not before I gain my closure.


There is a time when you need to come to terms with everything that has happened in your life. It's almost like a fight or flight response, You either accept what has happened and you move on, or you can let it eat away at you until there is nothing but the rotting flesh of which you once were. I decided a long ago that I needed to move on, but not before I gain my closure.

It's raining, again. Shocking, I know. I don't know why I keep thinking that maybe the sun will come out and the weather will be nice for a change, but what was I thinking. I spend 9 months out of the year stuck inside of a castle, working my arse off just to come home in the summer and stare out the window.

I can't really complain, I've got everything that I could ever want. I live in a large manor located on vast amounts of land, a seemingly unending library, a couple house elves just to ensure that I never have to lift a finger and a pseudo-family to care and provide for me. Unfortunately, one thing I don't have, is a family of my own.

When I was little, I liked to think that my parents didn't just abandon me, but that they were whisked away on some great adventure to save the entirety of the wizarding world. And that when I was old enough they would come swooping in to save me from my miserable existence and take me to assist them on their wild adventures. When I was nine, my psychologist told me that that would never happen.

Truth is, my parents were in a relationship of convenience. Two pureblood Slytherins, just trying to make their parents happy and live life as much as possible, until I came along. It's said that my mother was never meant to be a mother and my father stayed around just long enough to ensure that his last name was on my birth certificate. My mother only kept me around because it was bad enough that she was gifted with an illegitimate daughter but it would be a tad suspicious if I were to have disappeared as well.

I was just barely four when a woman with long curly hair and overly large teeth came to gather me from my former home. It had been two days since I had seen my mother and my nanny had had enough of her childish antics. I sat clutching my dragon plush, my knees pulled up into my chest and sat as I watched the scene play out before me.

The kind woman, Miss Weasley, kneeled in front of me and tried to entice information out of me with the help of ice mice. I didn't budge, physically or verbally. I sat on the newly polished hardwood floor, staring up at the striped green wallpaper in the sitting room, just trying to figure out why there were so many people were in my home. And at that moment I was a little more scared of the fact that there were so many people in my house doing a bunch of different tasks and asking a bunch of questions, that I wasn't really focused on what the woman was asking me. I didn't know why she kept trying to talk to me and that was when I heard the unmistakable voice of my aunt calling out my name, "Odessa," she cried frantically, at that I leapt from my spot on the floor, my plushy forgotten, and flung myself into her arms.

"Oh, my, sweetheart, are you alright?" She inquired.

"I feel alright, aunt 'storia? Do you know why all these people are here?" I replied.

She smirked at the fact that even though I was four I still couldn't pronounce her name properly.

"That's why I'm here, dear, to find out." She replied shakily. "Now why don't you go on to your room and pack yourself a bag, okay?" she added quickly. I nodded my head and skipped off in the direction of my room.

I stood on the plush pink carpet and looked around my room for what I was going to bring with me. At first I had grabbed my little backpack, but then I thought otherwise. So I grabbed my charmed bag and I stuffed it with as much clothes as I could. I didn't even bother to touch my toys because I knew that my cousin had more and much better toys than I did, he even had his own broomstick! Plus, my bag was already so heavy that I had to drag it behind me once I had gotten everything into it.

As I walked back into the sitting room I grabbed my dragon off the floor and clutched him tightly to my chest. I noticed that my uncle had joined my aunt in the moments that I had been away. The woman from before was speaking to them, all three stood tense in a loose circle. My aunt had tears streaming down her cheeks. My uncle had his arm protectively around her waist, the other grasped her hand.

"You can't do that though, you cannot take her away from the only family that she has, you cannot!" My aunt cried, oblivious to my arrival.

Miss Weasley was the first to notice me, she said something in a hushed whisper which caused my aunt to turn around quickly.

"What's going on?" I barely squeaked out. "Where am I gonna go if I can't stay with my family?"

Astoria opened her mouth to speak but before she could, Miss Weasley pushed her way past my aunt, "you're going to be staying with me," She said with a small smile, "but just for a little while."

"Why can't I stay with my aunt?" I asked quietly. I looked up, past my aunt's tear-stained cheeks, to my uncle's smug face and waited for the answer to my question.

"Because…we, um, we don't know… where your mother is," she stumbled on her own words as she tried to answer my question without actually answering it, "but in the mean time you're going to be staying with me. I have a daughter, her name is Rose, she's the same age as you actually, you'll be able to hang out and play all day. It's going to be a lot of fun, you'll see!" She finished her little speech with enthusiasm.

"Where is my mummy?" My eyes filling with tears and my lower lip jutting out.

"Don't worry, okay, we don't know anything right now, were just looking for her, we're going to make sure that she is okay. Is that your bag?" the woman asked.

"Yes." I responded staring at the ground.

"Okay, well I'll leave you to say your goodbyes. I'll just be over by the door." She responded. She stood up, rolled out her shoulders, straightened out her robes and with a slight nod and a wide smile, started walking towards the door.

As soon as she was far enough away, my aunt wrapped me in her arms and started speaking slowly, "I'm sorry dear, I wish that we could take you away from all of this, but unfortunately, we cannot right now. I promise you that I will come and visit you every day, I'll even bring Scorpius too. But don't worry, we're going to get this whole mess sorted out as quickly as possible, I promise baby." Her grip on me slackened a little as she stood up. She grabbed my bag off the floor with a little '_hmmpf' _and just as swiftly passed it off to my uncle to carry. She wiped away a few tears from her eyes, straightened her robes and turned back to me "A Malfoy has always got to be presentable." She said with a wink as she turned to walk towards the door, her hand on my back, guiding me gently through the crowded house.

When I had looked up to say something I realized that she had turned her head to her husband, they were speaking n hushed tones, but I could still make out what they were talking about, "are you sure there isn't any way around this? There must be something, a loophole or anything, or anyone! Draco, please, I can't let my niece be taken away like this." Astoria Whispered urgently to her husband.

Draco looked thoughtful for a moment and said, "I can try, but I can't guarantee anything. How do you think the wizamagot is going to view this, wait I can see the headlines now,' _An ex-deatheater trying to gain custody of his wife's irresponsible sisters' daughter._' Come off it Astoria, I'll see what I can find. But I can't guarantee that the ministry won't keep her from us." He whispered back.

"Thank you, Draco." The man stuffed his hands into his pockets and replied, "at least she'll be in good hands though. Granger will ensure that. Actually, when I had arrived and I saw you two talking, I thought that she was trying to take away Daphnes' house elves away. Hahaha. I had heard that she had gotten a job in the welfare department but I didn't think it was the S.C.P., or whatever."

My aunt's eyes narrowed slightly, "It's Child Protective Services, if you don't know the abbreviation, then you should abstain from using it." She told him sternly, "and her name is Weasley now. If we're going to try to make a good impression you might want to try using her actual name."

At that, my uncle just looked towards the ground, at which he noticed me watching their conversation and decided to ask my opinion on the subject, "so what do you think, little bird, do you like Miss Weasley?"

"I guess. She gave me ice mice!" I responded, holding up the box as if it were my greatest achievement.

"See, Astoria, She'll be fine." My uncle said with a laugh.


End file.
